Saturday, April 26, 2014

Game of the Day (4/25/14)

Baseball offered quite the variety of choices yesterday. There was an extra-inning game in which more runs were scored in the decisive eleventh inning than in the rest of the game combined. There was a game in which the road team scored twice to take the lead in the eighth, and the home team countered with two in the ninth for the win. There was a game that went into the ninth inning tied, and ended up being decided by seven runs. And there was a game in which the home team took a three-run lead with a four-run eighth, then saw the visitors close within one and load the bases with one out before a line drive double play ended it.

Then, there was White Sox 9, Rays 6, which was better than all of them.

Tampa started Chris Archer, and Chicago sent... me? (Not exactly, as Erik Johnson is four years younger and spells his first name differently than mine, but close enough.)

Johnson allowed a walk in the first, but Matt Joyce was caught stealing. In the bottom of the inning, Adam Eaton led off with a single, stole second, and scored on Jose Abreu's single to take the early lead. The Rays countered immediately in the second, however, starting when Evan Longoria singled and moved to second on a wild pitch. James Loney popped up and Wil Myers struck out, but David DeJesus walked, Yunel Escobar singled in the tying run, Ryan Hanigan singled to give Tampa the lead, Ben Zobrist doubled in the inning's third run, and Desmond Jennings and Joyce both walked to force in a fourth. Johnson was pulled for Jake Petricka, who retired Longoria to end the inning.

Archer worked around a single in the second, while Petricka walked two Rays before escaping the third. Abreu homered in the bottom of the third to bring his team within two, and Tampa stranded another pair of runners in the fourth after Jennings singled and Joyce walked. The bottom of the fourth saw the Sox tie the score on consecutive singles by Dayan Viciedo, Alexei Ramirez, Alejandro de Aza, and Tyler Flowers, the last of which plated the inning's first two runners. There were still two runners on and no outs at this point, but Gordon Beckham flied out and Eaton hit into a double play.

Petricka allowed two more Rays to reach in the fifth, this time on singles by Loney and DeJesus, the latter of which chased the hurler with one out. Zach Putnam relieved and walked Escobar to load the bases, then induced a 5-2-3 double play (which isn't one you see too often) to escape the jam. Archer was spotless in the fifth, and the sixth saw Tampa threaten yet again with a single by Zobrist and a walk by Joyce before Longoria and Loney were retired to leave them on.

Archer was flawless again in the sixth, and the Rays had their least-threatening inning in some time in the top of the seventh when Myers led off with a single but was erased on a DeJesus double play ball. Flowers led off the bottom of the inning with a double, thereby ending Archer's outing, and Jake McGee retired the next three Chicago hitters to maintain the tie score. Ronald Belisario hurled a 1-2-3 top of the eighth, and Joel Peralta allowed only a single to Adam Dunn, then induced a double play from Viciedo.

The game entered the ninth tied, but did not remain in that state for long, as Joyce drew a leadoff walk from Matt Lindstrom and Longoria followed with a go-ahead two-run homer. Lindstrom struck out three of the next four hitters to mitigate the damage a bit, and turned the game over to his offense with his fingers crossed.

Grant Balfour retired Ramirez to open the bottom of the ninth, but then allowed a de Aza double and walked Flowers. Pinch hitter Paul Konerko took a walk as well to load the bases; Eaton hit into a force to score one run but also put his team an out from defeat. Marcus Semien walked to reload the bases, and Abreu followed with an opposite-field homer on an 0-1 pitch - his second homer of the day and ninth of the year, and baseball's third walkoff grand slam so far this season.

The Rays had more walks than hits in this game, and their 10 hits were not exactly a small total; they had runners on base pretty much all the time, and left 11 of them there despite scoring six runs, hitting into a pair of double plays and having a runner caught stealing. Of particular note was Matt Joyce, who had no official at bats in this game; he drew 5 walks, none of them intentional. His previous career high in bases on balls was 3. 

The White Sox also had a hitter establish a career best, and in rather less quaint fashion. Abreu drew no walks, but did have the aforementioned pair of homers and 6 RBI, the latter of which was his maximum to date. The recently imported first baseman has certainly made a fine start to his MLB career, with three multi-homer games and three 4-or-more RBI games in his first 24; he's also tied for the AL leads in homers, RBI, extra-base hits, and total bases, and a close second in slugging. That would seem to indicate that early returns on his contract are rather favorable.

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